Random Gamer Punks Major Blogs on Xbox Rumors

You may have seen a story running around today that the next Xbox will just be called the Xbox, and will serve as a hub for the

“X-Surface” gaming tablet, as well as various other unannounced details. It began on Pocket-lint.com and moved on to sites like Gizmodo,Yahoo, Venturebeat and more. Most of those sites had to pull the story, because it was a complete fabrication (to their credit many were skeptical to begin with).

The story came from a random gamer who has revealed his or herself through this blog, here. The gamer says that he got so sick of the endless unconfirmed rumors in the gaming media that he decided to just invent some himself. He (or she) claimed to be a Microsoft employee, sent out some emails filled with plausible sounding notions and specs he had read elsewhere online. Within hours, it was making the rounds on the blogs. He has screencaps of all the emails on his website. They write:

Pocket-Lint.com were the first to run with the news, almost exactly one hour after saying “we have to make an effort to validate”; two hours before I got the chance to reply. It was posted with zero validation, no fact-checking, no source information. Just a simple email basically saying “I work for Microsoft - believe me?”.

I feel bad for lying, but it proves the point very well.

What happened is a classic case of supply and demand. The public is ravenous for details about the next consoles, and neither Microsoft nor Sony will even admit they exist. So journalists seek those details out and almost always have to rely on anonymous sources. Every outlet has a different policy on anonymous sources. Once you’ve seen it on one site, confirmation bias allows it spread freely.

It’s all about being first. To get such news out (whether you believe it or not) before any other publication does, will guarantee you page impressions, and that all-important advertising revenue. Gaming ‘journalism’ is completely broken.

By tagging a post with ‘rumour’, most writers/editors believe they can get away with spreading false information for their own benefits. They are the only ones to gain from such practices, whilst the gaming fans end up with speculation and, sometimes, outright lies.

It should remind you to take any information you see about unannounced projects, or anything labeled as rumor, with serious grains of salt. Sometimes you can trace back information that seems more reasonable – like the former AMD employees being sued by AMD for spreading PS4 and Xbox info, but by and large, rumor is rumor.

I'm a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Republic, IGN.com, Wired and more. I cover social games, video games, technology and that whole gray area that happens when technology and consumers collide.